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Jonathan Bomarito records first SRT win in Viper at U.S. GT Championship

September 25, 2012

Jonathan Bomarito won on Saturday at Texas in a V10 Viper for SRT Motorsports. Photo by CafePhoto

Jonathan Bomarito, driving a V10 Viper, won his first race for SRT Motorsports during North American Road Racing Association’s U.S. GT Championship event at Texas World Speedway on Sept. 22.

Because of the unlimited nature of the U.S. GT Championship’s GT-U class, the factory built Comp Coupe that Bomarito drove in Texas had more power than the restricted GTS-R he will run at Road Atlanta.

Bomarito topped Saturday morning’s practice time sheets and went on to win the pole position for the GT-U race by 1.6 seconds. SRT teammate Kuno Wittmer started alongside Bomarito in Jim Stout’s purple Coastal Pet Motorsports Viper Comp Coupe after Stout fell ill with vertigo.

Wittmer and Bomarito dueled into turn one, but Bomarito won out and created a small gap. Wittmer stayed in touch and appeared to be biding his time, before a tire failure took him out of contention. Wittmer finished eight of the 14 laps.

As he cruised to victory, Bomarito (GT-U, SRT Motorsports Viper Comp Coupe) set a new USGTC lap record of 1 minute, 38.231 seconds. Second overall was the GT-1 class winner Ben Keating (ViperExchange.com Viper Comp Coupe). Dave Fiorelli (Performance SpeedTech Viper GTS) finished third overall and placed second in GT-U.

The U.S. GT Championship is at Watkins Glen in New York for a double-points season finale Oct. 19-21. The event will feature a non-championship 90 minute Endurance race on Friday and a stand-alone NARRA World Championship race on Sunday.